1 Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a motor vehicle roof including a fixed roof structure having front and rear roof openings, a fixed roof section disposed between the front and rear roof openings, two covers for closing a respective roof opening, whereby at least one of the covers is selectively movable longitudinally from a closed position into an open position to at least partially expose a respective roof opening, and whereby each cover is pivotable out of the closed position into a ventilation position. The invention furthermore relates to such a roof with front and rear headliner units, whereby the front headliner unit can be pushed out of the cover position which is assigned to the front cover to the rear to under the stationary fixed roof structure, and whereby the rear headliner unit can be pushed out of the cover position assigned to the rear cover forward to under the stationary fixed roof structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
European Patent Publication EP 0 854 061 A1 describes one such motor vehicle roof with two roof openings, whereby the rear edge of a front cover and a rear cover can be raised with respect to the front edge of the cover by a pivoting-out mechanism into a ventilator position and can be lowered to move in a position under the stationary fixed roof structure.
In the known roofs with two openings with respective covers and headliners, the two comparatively large-area headliner elements are guided on respective guide rails located with a vertical offset with respect to one another under the fixed roof structure so that they can be stowed at the same time on top of one another under the stationary fixed roof structure. However, the free head space for vehicle passengers is reduced by the guide rail which has been offset downward.
In view of the foregoing, an object of the present invention is to provide a motor vehicle roof in which optimized ventilation of the motor vehicle can be achieved by various cover positions.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a headliner for a motor vehicle roof which can be stowed under the stationary fixed roof structure of the roof in its open position with little space requirement.
These and other objects may be achieved in accordance with the motor vehicle roof of the present invention in that the respective rear edges of the front cover and the rear cover are upwardly pivoted about their front edges into respective ventilator positions. The rear edges are upwardly pivoted by pivoting the cover about a transverse axis at their front edges or in the fixed roof area around the front edges of the covers. Accordingly, two sliding and pivoting roofs are combined, and the rear sliding and lifting roof or the rear cover is selectively movable forward by a guide means out of a closed position so as to be positioned under the stationary fixed roof structure.
These and other objects are also achieved in that the front cover can be lowered about its rear edge into a ventilator position and the rear cover can be raised about its front edge into a ventilator position. The front cover, as a result of the lowering of its front edge, may be called a xe2x80x9cfront ventxe2x80x9d. Using the lowered front edge on the front cover and the raised rear edge of the rear cover, two ventilation openings which are distant from one another are made available with improved ventilation action for the entire motor vehicle interior.
Furthermore, these and other objects are achieved in accordance with the present invention in that the front cover can be raised about its front edge into its ventilator position and the rear cover can be lowered about its rear edge into its ventilator position.
Finally, these and other objects are achieved in accordance with the present invention in that the front cover and the rear cover can be lowered on their respective front edges around their respective rear edges into their respective ventilator positions.
If, in one preferred embodiment of the motor vehicle roof, there is a pivotable wind deflector in front of the front cover, by raising the wind deflector, a draft can be produced for ventilating the interior of the motor vehicle. For the front cover which can be lowered on its front edge, a clearly larger ventilation opening can be set when the pivoted-out wind deflector also clears an additional opening.
The object is achieved with respect to the aforementioned headliner in that the two headliner units are guided essentially in a common plane near the roof and out of their cover positions in the direction to their open positions under an intermediate portion of the stationary fixed roof structure, and that at least one of the two headliner units is divided in the longitudinal direction into at least two headliner elements which can be displaced or pivoted relative one another, and during its displacement to under the intermediate portion of the stationary fixed roof structure, it is guided from its arrangement near the roof to under the other headliner unit. The division of the large-area headliner unit into at least two or more headliner elements which are shorter in the longitudinal direction makes the headliner unit flexible around one or more transverse axes such that it can be moved into a stowed position and can be deposited therein, and the guides to the stowage position can be located near the roof. In this way, the head space for the vehicle passengers is not unduly limited.
The headliner unit can have individual, separate elements which can be flexibly or pivotably joined to one another, or alternatively, it can be made in one piece with sections divided in the longitudinal direction with varied bending flexibility in order, for example, to be able to follow a guideway which is bent in a S-shape. Preferably, one headliner unit is movably supported on a guide which essentially follows the roof contour and which extends from the assigned cover to under the stationary fixed roof structure, and the other headliner unit is movably guided on a guide which runs, in the area of the stationary fixed roof structure, underneath the other guide. If the two headliner units can be moved independently of one another according to the requirements of the vehicle passengers, also only one of the headliner elements can be partially or completely closed.
Embodiments of the motor vehicle roof and the headliner are explained in detail below with reference to the drawings.